Buesseler has been at the forefront of an international effort to study Fukushima’s footprint and recently analyzed the data Japan publishes regularly on contamination levels in fish. His conclusion: Perhaps there’s a continuing source of radioactive material in the ocean— hotspots of contamination on the ocean floor and/or low level leaks that haven’t been plugged.

How are the Japanese reacting? While Japan’s government has been sampling fish extensively, their work is “more about seeing if levels in fish are below some threshold, and less about oceanographic context and interpretation of various sources and sinks, ” Buesseler said in an email interview.

Last week, to my chagrin, my husband ordered sushi in one of Montreal’s finest Japanese restaurants. Among the offerings: flounder—bottom feeders— from somewhere in Japan. From where? They didn’t know.

Nice to know, but Japan does need to address Buesseler’s concern: Why are the radiation levels not declining, as they should be if the water were cleaner?

Next month, Buesseler is off to the troubled land to lead a scientific symposium in conjunction with his colleague at the University of Tokyo. Let’s hope they can get the authorities to start figuring out why the situation is still so fishy.